50bb vs 25-30 bb mtt. whats the best approach to keep on stacking.

[zayzoo]

say its about the early middle stage of the MTT . 50 players get paid and 300 players are left. blinds are around 300-600 ante 125. u got about a little over 50bbs and your in a table with a few good players that are ranging around 20bbs- 30bbs. Whats the best way to approach, should you be re raising light in position against these players and opening wider. Or should you play tight in position, raise with strong hands against weak opponents. i find myself finding trouble at this sometimes, maybe its because im playing too much ABC and getting called and not taking it down enough when i bet, or maybe im just focused on playing strong hands and not really worried about paying my opponents off when they call my raise. i usually find myself getting chopped a few thousand, then playing proper and really just keeping my stack at the same amount rather than increasing it when im raising. I was just wondering is it better to 3bet in this type of situation against my opponents and cbet when checkd.. how do you adjust to players that like to call in this type of situation? I guess my goal is to understand where I can raise my opponents to where i dont have to put in a good amount of chips, but also be consistent when i do. kind of like small ball .have any of you got into a similiar situation like this and how did you adjust ..

[Assistanc3]

(125 x 9) + 900 + (1800 x 2) = 5625
(antes x table) + (BB+SB) + 3bb raise w/1 caller = pot

25BB to the flop has
15000 - 125 - 1800 = 13075 stack

check cBet
5625 + 1800 = 7425 pot

If your facing good players (lets just assume that is better then competent) at this stage of the game, you're going to be called more times then not unless you have already shown the image of a reckless (small ball) betting pattern. The problem with such a small cBet on the flop is that a call by the opponent and then be faced with an open bet on the turn has you in a pickle. You're either going to have to fold or go with it because the pot is now bloated.
7425 + (1800 x 2) = 11025 pot
pot + (cBet called) = pot is about same as their stack (11275)

That is the pot with you in position and them calling a pre flop raise, add in them raising and you re-raising pre flop bloats the pot even more. Which would exacerbate the decision making and is probably why your paying off players and asking this overall question to begin with.

Should you play small ball poker at this stage? Yes of course, but only if you have the image a small ball player AND everyone knows it. If they don't know your playing small ball, then your not playing small ball poker - that is a key part of the playing style is that they know, so they call you light.

Should you play ABC poker at this stage? Yes of course, maybe kinda. If the players at the table see you as only showing down with Aces, Kings and Queens, or sets, flushes and straights then use the image and your stack to apply pressure. Go balls to the wall with your cred and jam them out of pots.

If your poker style is typical ABC poker and your not getting called pre flop then you can open your starting hand range but not the betting size. If your poker style is typical small ball poker and your getting called all the time but can't handle it, then that style of poker is not for you. Applying pressure, forcing your opponent to make the tough decisions is what you do with a larger chip stack and it can be done with ABC or small ball poker.

sidenote: small ball poker doesn't re-raise pre flop or 3bet
they premise of small ball poker is to play many pot controlled hands

[zayzoo]

thanks for the lesson. This is very helpful. I see i have much more to learn.

[offrdmom]

thanks for the lesson. This is very helpful. I see i have much more to learn.

A huge shout out of Thanks to both zayzoo for his willingness to ask and A3 for his willingness in answer..

[zayzoo]

im hitting the books this month. its back to the drawing board. I figured the only way i can get help or learn is to ask or post about my situation. As you can see, i wasnt aware on how I approached my game and I was lacking a whole lot of knowledge and thats fine, we all make mistakes and im glad he put it out there to help me out because its exactly what I wanted.

[NFI]

If your opponent is a very tight player, it might be better to hold back a little because he probably won’t call unless he’s holding top pair or better. Against these kinds of players, you usually want to pot control with marginal hands, because our opponent is only looking to build a big pot with a strong hand.

If your opponent is rather aggressive then you might want to hold back a little too. For example, when you are holding top pair and a good kicker, and you are fairly certain you have the best hand, but you opponent tends to re-raise on the river with both strong and medium hands, you might want to check back to him on the river in order to avoid getting re-raised (all in). Chances are he’s holding nothing, but he might have been slow playing a monster and in general you want to put your opponent to the tough decisions and you must try to avoid having to make them yourself, so checking might be the best option.

The opposite might be happening too, you’re playing a passive player. Passive players tend to call rather than raise. Against these players value betting is very often the best move. They will generally call you off or fold, so if you raise in situations where you’re most often ahead, then in the long run, you’ll make good money value betting. The player type you should value bet against the most is the loose-passive player who will, on average hold on to the worse hands and will call you off with those hands.

Late tournament big stack play
If you were able to accumulate a large stack through the early and middle stages of the tournament you should now be playing tight and holding onto the chips that you have. Avoid confrontation with other tall stacks that can do harm to you. If you have enough chips to wait out the tournament, then do so.

An example would be if you are in 5^th out of 22 players in a satellite tournament that awards 18 seats and you are dealt QQ. The chip leader raised the pot from early position. This is a time when you should probably fold this hand and just try to wait out 4 more busts. Since the relative value of the extra chips you would earn by winning this hand is basically 0, there is no reason whatsoever for you to risk busting out of the tournament when you have enough chips to survive.

Late tournament short stack play
If you weren’t able to accumulate many chips through the early stages and are now one of the short stacks you need to try to win chips and avoid bubbling. In satellite tournaments the best players to raise are the medium stack players who you can still do damage to and who are trying to wait out the last few busts.

You should be coming over top of their blinds from late position when you get the chance. You should only go after the monster stacks and short stacks with quality hands. The huge stacks aren’t really worried about winning a seat and will likely call just to try to finish the tournament faster. Short stacks are in the same position as you and would be looking to double up with any good hand as well.

[zayzoo]

i started using a HUD to help understand my opponents tendency and betting patterns. Though the numbers are still new to me, im finding it very usual.

I also found out that I had to learn how to adjust to being lags & tags. and all the loose passiveness and seeing who voluntarily puts in money into the pot. i think ill have to post a thread on this soon, because its very interesting to learn and talk about ..